


Sharing Spaces

by hopeassassin



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: F/M, Living Together, University students Aomine and Momoi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-26
Updated: 2017-12-26
Packaged: 2019-02-22 05:32:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13160304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hopeassassin/pseuds/hopeassassin
Summary: Living on the university’s grounds meant living by the university’s rules. So both Daiki and Satsuki got to share a room with a stranger as the housing committee saw fit.





	Sharing Spaces

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea if this is how it happens in America, nor do I have a clue how it happens in Japan. I can’t make it completely authentic in that sense. I just wrote the story how it happens in my country, so, here you go.
> 
> Day 4: Type.

It came as no surprise to anyone when Aomine and Momoi end up enrolling in the same university.

 

In fact, it was a bit more surprising that Aomine would even go on to higher education to begin with. Given his penchant to skip classes, it was a bit shocking that he made it through the entrance exams.

 

But, whatever the case, he did go to university, and it was the same one as Momoi’s.

 

She enrolled in one of their economics programs, whereas Daiki chose the easiest major to get in. His goal was mostly trying his hand in university-level basketball anyway, not so much to specialize in anything other than his favourite sport.

 

Being two and a half hours long commute from their homes, living in the campus dorm was a must for the former Touou students.

 

Living on the university’s grounds meant living by the university’s rules. So both of them got to share a room with strangers as the housing committee saw fit.

 

One would think that an outgoing, sociable girl with Satsuki would have no problems sharing spaces with a member of the same sex. Their parents had almost betted on the fact Daiki would be the one who’d be unable to get along with his roommate.

 

Unimaginable was their surprise when only a month after they first move into their dorm rooms, Satsuki started spending more of her waking hours in Daiki’s room just to be away from her roommate.

 

It turned out that pleasant, kind Satsuki wasn’t as tolerant as everyone thought she was. At least not when it came to sharing a tiny room with a stranger who refused to listen to her requests.

 

The pink-haired girl had never been one to allow herself to be pushed around. But there really wasn’t much she could do when her roommate refused to wash her dishes she left in the sink. She refused to tone down the volume of her music when Satsuki was trying to study into the night. She also didn’t seem to see anything wrong with keeping the lamp on until the wee hours of the morning when  _she_ had to study late—even though she had a perfectly working, rather nice night lamp on her desk.

 

All of these Satsuki might have somehow swallowed down if it wasn’t for the girl’s most horrible ways of disrespecting Satsuki’s sleep.

 

All of her horrible hygienic habits were  _nothing_ compared to the way she let doors slam, items fall from ridiculous heights just for the sake of making loud sounds that would cause Satsuki to stir fitfully in her slumber.

 

That had been the last straw. There was no more miss nice Momoi for that jackass, Satsuki had decided.

 

Thus, her own room had turned into something of a warzone where she couldn’t relax for even a second.

 

Subsequently, it was the reason for her frequenting Dai-chan’s room more and more often.

 

Daiki didn’t seem to have any such problems with his roommate. If anything, they behaved like they’d been acquaintances for long years. Satsuki envied them. Boys were so simple. She wished girls were a bit easier to deal with like boys were, sometimes.

 

Being used to having her nearby, and commiserating with her plight, Daiki never sent her back whenever she came knocking at his door.

 

The girl had no idea how Dai-chan’s roommate felt about her near-constant presence in their room, but never made a sound.

 

She noticed him staring at them several times, appearing pensive and confused. He never breathed a word of his perplexing to them, whatever had him so thoughtful when it came to their bond.

 

To be honest, Satsuki had an inkling what it was. Especially since the guy had asked her if she was ‘Aomine’s girlfriend’ the first time she’d dropped by for a longer time. Her denial back then seemed to put his mind ill at ease now; if she was just a friend, what was she doing hanging around the guy in every waking hour?

 

She was sure normal people didn’t get it. She couldn’t blame them. If she were them, she’d probably not be able to get it either.

 

But whenever life got tough and she felt constantly on edge, being around laid-back, soothingly familiar Dai-chan brought her the kind of peace of mind she couldn’t otherwise achieve.

 

After the second month rolled by, Daiki could almost swear Satsuki had spent a lot more time in his room than her own. It wouldn’t have made an impression on him, he wouldn’t have minded at all if not for her  _constant complaining_ about the girl she shared a room with.

 

“Seriously, Satsuki, just tell that girl off if she bothers you so much,” he snapped, interrupting his childhood friend mid-tirade.

 

The pink-haired girl glared heatedly at him.

 

“I’ve told you a thousand times already. I keep telling her to stop doing the things that piss me off. She just  _refuses to listen_ , you know?!” She gestured furiously in the way she did when she started getting upset.

 

Daiki rolled his eyes, not at all swayed by her distress.

 

“Then you must be doing it wrong or something. I’m certain even Tohru has tired of hearing the same thing from you, over and over again, every time you come here, whining to me.”

 

The tanned adolescent’s roommate stiffened whilst reading his book at the mention of his name. He waved a placating hand, truly not wanting a part in an argument that wasn’t his concern at all.

 

“How wrong can I be in saying ‘Please stop doing this, it annoys me’?! What kind of person continues doing something someone else continuously  _begs_ them to stop doing?!” The boys were starting to think that she was ignoring their presence and getting into another shouting match with her roommate in her mind.

 

Daiki gave a long-suffering sigh.

 

“If you can’t make her stop, maybe I’ll be able to.” He made a movement to get up from the bed where he was lying sprawled. He closed the photobook of Horikita Mai (a persisting interest of his well into his adolescence, just like basketball was) and fully intended to rise to his feet.

 

Satsuki didn’t let him. She pulled him back down on the bed by his wrist, a frantic look in her eyes.

 

“What now?” he demanded in a tired tone, truly at the end of his wits.

 

“You can’t just  _go there_  and start saying stuff like that!” Satsuki all but screeched – a definitive sign that she was starting to feel desperate. “A guy butting into a girls’ argument is just a resounding NO. For all I know, you’ll just make it worse!” She clapped her hands to her cheeks in horror, a realization dawning on her at once. “Heck, for all I know, she might be being difficult because of you!”

 

Daiki gave his childhood friend his typical scrunching up of his eyebrows in disbelief.

 

“Haa?!” he exclaimed wordlessly, her statement scandalous. How the hell did this suddenly turn out to be  _his_ fault?

 

He’d only ever seen Satsuki’s roommate once or twice in his life. On the rare occasions he’d gone to fetch Satsuki from her room (instead of the usual other way around that it was), he’d seen the girl in question curiously peeking at him from just beyond the slightly open door.

 

Satsuki shook her head to clear it of thoughts about how ridiculous and all-encompassing female jealousy could be. She focused her glare on Daiki with renewed fervour.

 

“Whatever, just…  _don’t_ try to fix anything. You’ll only make it worse, okay?”

 

“ _Not_ okay,” Daiki growled out. He was miffed, mostly because Satsuki—who never backed down from a fight—was now waving the figurative white flag to some skank who was subpar to her in everything. “If you can’t get along with the girl, just go to the housing committee and get a room replacement.”

 

Satsuki made a petulant pout, looking like she was thinking how to argue back. Daiki rolled his eyes in exasperation.

 

“Look, you can’t keep loitering around other people’s rooms, Satsuki,” he explained to her slowly, deliberately. “I don’t really care that you’re constantly in my face, but I’m sharing this place with a guy, you know. He might be too polite to say so, but you’re probably bothering him. Have you considered that?”

 

The boy in question looked a lot more troubled about the insinuation that Satsuki’s presence seemed to have ever made him feel. At least that was the pink haired girl’s estimation.

 

But she was just making excuses. She knew that Daiki was probably right.

 

Her pout turned into a firm scowl.

 

“Well, what am I supposed to do? Where’s my guarantee that I won’t end up with someone even worse,” hard though it was to imagine it was even physically possible to have a roommate who was  _worse_ than the one she had, “when I get another room?” She crossed her arms angrily over her chest, pinning her gaze to the farthest wall. “It’s not like I’m enjoying crashing at you guys’ place all the time, you know?! I do it because I don’t really have much of a choice! Why don’t  _you_ try living with someone who’s constantly grating on your nerves?”

 

Daiki bit his tongue to keep himself from telling her that he somehow was doing just that, what with her constant visits. He estimated that her mental state was not right for making that kind of comments, though.

 

“Live with one of your friends from the economics, then,” he pitched in with an idea.

 

Satsuki’s frown deepened. Who did he think he was? There were hardly any ideas he could come up with that she hadn’t already considered herself.

 

Of course she’d thought about getting reassigned a room with one of her fellow economics majors. But experience had taught her that sharing spaces had a peculiar effect of straining bonds in a way she’d never known before she’d had to live with someone else.

 

“No way. If I live with them, it will ruin our friendships. I don’t want that.”

 

Daiki threw his hands up in surrender.

 

“Then what  _do_  you want? To keep nagging us here for the next three years?” the navy-haired young man demanded waspishly, glaring daggers at his childhood friend.

 

She averted her magenta eyes guiltily away from his.

 

“Well, no…” she admitted slowly, poking her index fingers together in her lap.

 

“What do you want, then? Do enlighten me, because I’m running out of ideas here.”

 

His voice was tense, his nerves taut. What she didn’t know, though, is that one of the reasons for his wariness with the topic was the fact her constant presence in their room meant she was constantly distressed in her own. And that didn’t sit well with Daiki, however lax and laid-back he was otherwise.  

 

He didn’t take well to people screwing up his day, and he took just as unwell people screwing up his friends’ days.

 

“I do plan to get a room reassignment,” Satsuki informed him coolly.

 

The storminess eased a little out of Daiki’s face.

 

“Good,” he said, stressing the word with emphasis.

 

“And when I do, I’ll ask them to let me live with you,” she continued.

 

Her statement seemed to catch Daiki’s roommate a lot more by surprise than the former Touou ace himself.

 

The unwilling spectator to their little exchange had just raised his coffee mug to take a sip when Satsuki had blurted out that last sentence. She made Daiki’s roommate choke on his coffee, sputtering gracelessly as he tried to compose himself.

 

The Touou graduates took a quick glance his way just to make sure he was okay before turning to hold each other’s gaze.

 

That’s the story of how Daiki and Satsuki came to live together on campus.

 

Or, well, more like how they came to conceive the idea that they  _should_ room in together.

 

* * *

 

Getting the housing committee to agree with Satsuki’s wishes turned out to be harder than coming up with the idea.

 

It seemed that the university officials didn’t really look well upon putting people of opposite genders in the same room. For understandable reasons.

 

The only mixed pairs that were allowed were married couples—because forcing a family apart wasn’t what the rule existed for.

 

Still, Satsuki wasn’t just a random girl. Her powers of conviction were impressive. What worth would having them be if she couldn’t talk her way out of a situation like this?

 

Eventually, about three months after the start of the semester, Daiki and Satsuki moved into their new abode.

 

The room was just as tiny as their previous ones. It gave one the feeling of being cramped into a can.

 

Yet Satsuki felt better than she had in what felt like forever.

 

She was sure that living with Dai-chan wouldn’t be all sunshine and butterflies either. Still, she was sure that if she asked him to do something, at the very least on the third time she had to ask, he’d do it; if not for any other reason, simply to shut her up.

 

However, sharing spaces with Dai-chan was something she was used to. She had often dropped by his place when they were still in school. He’d come by her place too many times to count as well. They’d been as good as living together for the past couple of months, too. Surely, it wasn’t going to be all that different now that they were formally sharing a room.

 

She turned out to be both right and wrong.

 

While it wasn’t all that different, there was a certain degree of novelty to coming home to a dripping wet Dai-chan, fresh out of the bathroom. Having to kick his discarded dirty socks from the middle of the room to his part of the premise was also something she hadn’t considered. His clothes were all over the backs of chairs and his bed, taking up space. There was a degree of chaos in the place she’d never endured in her room before.

 

Despite being a bit lazy, Dai-chan was not a bad roommate. He often came home with food enough for both of them—quite the saving grace, considering Satsuki still couldn’t cook anything worth a damn. He washed his dishes every evening, and didn’t particularly barge in her space unless he had some business with her.

 

He wasn’t uncomfortable with the silence that followed their everyday pleasantries they dutifully exchanged once one of them entered the premise. He felt neither inclined, nor dissuaded from starting conversations with her about anything and everything that tickled his fancy. It was a kind of perfect equilibrium where she never felt alone, even when he left her to her own devices to do her own thing.

 

The room she shared with Dai-chan was a room she could relax in.

 

Satsuki finally came to appreciate the benefits of living somewhere outside of home when she moved in with the person she’d known her whole life.

 

Of course, that didn’t mean they didn’t have arguments. Sometimes, they were rather heated. For example, Satsuki hated the way he left the water in the sink to drip in a way that grated her nerves. The fact his bed was further away from the bathroom didn’t make it alright to waste water like that. Not to mention that the constant sound the droplets made as they collided into the basin of the sink was absolutely infuriating after a while.

 

Especially when she was trying to sleep.

 

She’d had to tell him repeatedly to stop digging in his nose in front of her because it irked her. He didn’t seem to get what her problem was, but after the fourth time she started an argument because of it, he started trying to do it when she wasn’t around. Which, really, had been her whole point,  _thank you very much_.

 

He liked keeping the window open even when she slept—something she didn’t take well to. Being a very outdoorsy kind of person, Satsuki could understand his reasoning, but he really ought to understand hers, too. It was not cool to open the window when the seasons were starting to wane into the chillier times. He could get her sick for all she knew.

 

She was no saint either in his eyes, she was sure. They’d frequently fought at first about the way she kept trying to put order in things that were in his own part of the room. She did it because the chaos irked her. But after a while, she started to learn how to live with it without it bothering her so much.

 

He also had a knack for staying too long in the bathroom in the morning—what was he even  _doing_ so long in there, she pondered angrily—which seemed to only worsen on the days when their schedules for getting up coincided.

 

But all in all, if she had to be honest, these little issues never really bothered her. Not in the way they had with that girl she’d previously lived with.

 

Plus, whatever animosity she had nurtured for him during the day more often than not evaporated without a trace when she saw him crashed atop the covers of his bed, having been too exhausted to even take his clothes off before lying down.

 

There was something about the blissfully sleeping Dai-chan’s face that made her forgive him all his transgressions against her.

 

* * *

 

Over the time they spent sharing that room in the dorm, Daiki and Satsuki got many guests. A large part of the former Seirin team had dropped by to visit them over the months, along with a slew of other people they knew and had befriended.

 

None of them seemed to grasp how it was possible for a young man and woman to be sharing a space as tiny as they did, without any romantic involvement to speak of potentiating it.

 

They didn’t understand how it was possible for two adolescents to be able to work together so well without being a couple. They were on the same wavelength most of the time, rarely needing prompting to know what the other wanted them to do. It was especially obvious when they were catering to visitors.

 

Their friends didn’t understand how it was possible for two people so different to get along so well.

 

Satsuki didn’t blame them. If she wasn’t part of such a bond, she wouldn’t understand it either.

 

But this was just the type of bond she had with Dai-chan.

 

It came to them easily, naturally. It was normal to them, because that’s how they’d always been, more or less.

 

Whenever they were asked about it—because nothing really changed on the outside, other than the fact that they both lived in the same room now—they simply shrugged noncommittally. Neither of the two felt compelled to rationalize the way they were to people who couldn’t possibly understand.

 

Besides, the fact they never cared to correct them when their friends were mind boggled about how it was possible for them to get along so well without there being any romantic involvement didn’t mean that there really was no romantic involvement between them.

 

Daiki and Satsuki’s bond was the type that allowed them to share living spaces without getting awkward and flustered about it was one thing.

 

However, it wasn’t the type of bond that made them blind and oblivious to the other either.

 

It was natural progression, really. Going from being childhood friends sharing less than thirty square feet of living space to being something a lot more was expected. It was encouraged by the additional time they ended up spending together, getting to see the other in a light that had been rarely shed on their person before.

 

The change in the nature of their relationship didn’t mean they couldn’t have some fun stringing along their friends with tailed lies and pretenses.

 

After all, it was the type of pair Daiki and Satsuki were.

 

Mischievous right down to their bone marrow.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Recently I re-read this and I thought that I need to elaborate on the period between them starting to live together and them getting together.
> 
> Whether we will live to see what happens with that idea, only time will tell. Hah. :D


End file.
